The Fourteenth Noah
by LavieTyme
Summary: Ever since the day that Mana woke up, Neah had known of the existence of the Noah family, the Millennium Earl, and the Akuma. He despised them for what they did to his family when he was young, but now, what will he do when he finds out that his life will be linked with the Noah family more deeply than he had ever thought.
1. Chapter 1

"What is the wind saying?" a voice like honey called from down below. The boy who perched on the tree's branches looked down, seeing his mother's kind face staring up at him, smiling softly. Her dark hair was wound in a loose bun, tendrils of hair brushing against her face. The fabric of her elegant dress blew around in the wind, but she did nothing to stop it. The woman leaned against the tree, still smiling up at her son.

"What are you talking about?" the boy replied.

His mother closed her eyes. "It looked like you were talking to it," she said and then turned her attention to the tree. "Hello Cornelia."

Her son looked down at his mother with curiosity. It seemed like she was playing with him, but she did half-heartedly. The boy turned back to the scene that lay before him: A strange smoke rose over the plains in the distance, its strange coloring causing most to feel a slight sense of panic after they saw it. His uncle, his mother's brother, was there along with several other people who lived in the area, checking it out.

"Hey, mother, is it true that weirdo Cyrus is the new head of the Campbell family?" the boy asked. He wasn't really the biggest fan of his uncle after he, his mother, and his older brother had gone to live with him. His mother always looked on the bright side of their relationship, even when there didn't seem to be one. Even now, she laughed.

"Weirdness runs in the family," she said and looked back up at her son. "Look at you! You were talking to the wind!" She looked off into the distance and her laugh faded into a small, seemingly content smile. "What a nice breeze…" she said.

_Well you were talking to the tree! _He bit back his response instead of saying it allowed and looked closely at his mother. She had dark circles under her eyes; she had stayed up again at his brother's bedside again, worrying for the last month about his condition. _Mana…_ he thought sadly. His brother… he still hadn't woke up. It scared him to no end with the questions that flooded his mind.

"Mother…" he said, trying to keep his voice from cracking. Already he could feel tears start to form in his eyes. His mother looked up at him in response, her smile fading. "Will Mana never become an adult?" he asked. "Bennet and the others said so. They said he won't wake up. After all it's been a month since then… Mana is-"

"Neah!" a cheerful voice interrupted, one he recognized. The boy looked down at his mother's smiling face… and his brother's. His brother was there, crawling on the ground, peaking up at him from under their mother's skirt. Neah felt his eyes welling up with tears as he stared in shock, completely caught off guard.

Somehow he got off the tree, but he didn't remember it. All he was focused on was seeing Mana as he was now, not as he had been the last month. Nothing else mattered.

"Did you wake up Mana?" Neah asked, walking towards his family, fearing that this was a dream and he was going to wake up. His older brother reached out for him and he touched Mana's hand; it reassured him that this wasn't a dream. His brother was really awake.

Neah wiped away his tears with his other hand and started laughing, choking on the tears that hadn't stop flowing from his eyes. "You're so mean, the both of you," he said and ruffled Mana's curly hair. "Even you, mother."

His mother started laughing guiltily as she watched her two children interacted with each other for the first time in a long time. Mana embraced his younger brother, holding him tight. Neah smiled sadly, his tears finally ceasing to flow.

"Welcom back, Mana," he said.

Nearly half an hour passed that the two children spent playing with each other after a long time separated from each other. They had ended up in the tree, staring out in the distance at the smoke, trying to guess what the cause could be. There hadn't been any word about the cause yet, or at least, none that had reached him. It was starting to worry the boys' mother with the safety of both her children and own brother that was currently at the scene.

"Mother, are you alright?" Mana asked, looking down. Their mother met the children's gaze and put on a smile, one they could feel was fake.

"I'm fine. How about you? Are you feeling tired?" she asked. Mana shook his head and smiled brightly.

"I'm having too much fun," he replied. His mother turned to the other boy who was still staring off into the distance.

"Neah, how about you?" she asked, but the boy didn't give her an answer, his sights trained on the smoke.

"Mother?" he said, his voice slightly quaking in fear. "Mother, what's going on over there?"

Both the woman and her oldest child turned to look back at the smoke which had doubled in size. If you looked closely you could see someone running from the source. As he drew closer, Neah recognized him as their uncle, Cyrus. Their mother ran to meet him.

"Adelaide! What are you doing here?" Cyrus demanded. The mother stopped in front of him, peering past his shoulder.

"The boys and I were enjoying the afternoon breeze. What's going on over there?" she asked. Neah and Mana climbed down from the tree and wandered over to their mother and uncle. Cyrus looked at Mana in surprise.

"You're awake?" he asked. The young boy nodded and Cyrus turned back to Adelaide. "There's a fire over there and it's spreading because of the dry grass. I want you to take your children and head back to the house. Stay there until it's safe," he said. Adelaide nodded and started to usher her children to the house, but both Mana and Neah complained.

"Mother, I want to help!"

"Me too!"

"Please let us. We'll be good!"

"It isn't a matter of being good, it's a matter of being safe," Adelaide replied and pushed her children gently towards the house. "Your uncle will be able to take of this. We'll just have to wait."

"I'm going to help," Neah said and made a move towards his uncle. His mother reached to grab his arm but he pushed her away. "I'm not going to sit around again. I want to help!"

Adelaide stared in surprise at her youngest son as he stared at her with determination. When she didn't reply, he started to follow Cyrus' retreating form. Adelaide felt a tug on her sleeve and she looked down at Mana, who smiled at her reassuringly. "He'll be fine, mother," he said. "He's strong." Adelaide smiled back at him.

"You're right, Mana," she said and repeated her son's words. "Your brother is strong."

Neah stumbled over the land as he tried to follow his uncle. It had been a month since he had run this much through the uneven soil of the plains. He was tripping over his own feet as he ran, but he hadn't fallen yet. He wouldn't allow himself to fall. He had to keep walking.

"Kid, what are you doing? Go back with your mother and brother," Cyrus yelled at the boy when he realized he was following him. Neah stopped and glared at his uncle.

"I want to help," he said.

"Damn it, kid. I don't need your help."

"I'm going to help you."

Cyrus grabbed onto his nephews shoulders. "You are going back. Right now," he said and turned the boy so he was facing the opposite direction, but Neah resisted. He turned right back around and stared at his uncle.

"No," he said. Cyrus was beginning to feel irritated at his sister's kid. Not only was he defying his instructions, but his mother's as well. It wasn't something you would see coming out of him every day. However, somehow the kid was starting to convince him to come along with him.

"Do what I say and don't get in the way," Cyrus said, finally making the decision to let the boy come. As long as Neah did what he said, he was fine with it. Besides, this made the boy happy, and when he was happy, it made his mother happy.

Neah smiled; he had one. He followed his uncle towards the smoke, which he could now see was a small blaze. Neah's smile disappeared as he held his arm over his mouth to keep himself from breathing in the smoke. It still managed to penetrate his lungs despite his efforts and he started to cough. Cyrus covered his own mouth and continued to walk towards the fire. There were two or three other people surrounding it, throwing buckets filled with water over the fire. The blaze and added smoke concealed the source of the fire. The smoke was causing Neah's eyes to tear up, and he blinked ferociously to clear them.

"Did you get the man out?" Cyrus asked one of the younger men who nodded in response, pointing towards a man sitting on his knees. Cyrus muttered a thanks and walked over to the man, Neah in tow. The man wore a once-fancy suit covered in holes. Parts of it were grey along the black material caused by soot while others were white because of the undershirt he wore. His short black hair was disheveled with small splinters of wood caught in the mess. His eyes were full of fear as he watched the fire rage on.

"Sir. Sir, I need to talk to you," Cyrus said to the man. He ignored him, continuing to watch the fire. Cyrus turned to Neah. "Stay with him. If he needs anything, give it to him or come to me." He wandered over to the other men to help them and left Neah alone with the man. Neah frowned as he watched his uncle leave when the man started speaking.

"I-I need to get it. I need to get the Innocence," he said.

"Innocence?" Neah asked, not knowing what the man was talking about. Maybe he was crazy.

The man turned his gaze to the boy, his eyes strangely filled with tears. "Please. Please get it for me," he pleaded. Neah took a step back and looked at the fire. It was still raging wild. There was no way he could get whatever it was the man wanted.

"Sir, I can't do that. It's dangerous," Neah replied. "I could get you some water, though."

"No, no, no! I need to get the Innocence and bring it to them. I need it," the man said and stood up. Neah's eyes widened as he walked towards the blaze.

"W-wait, sir! I can't let you do that," Neah protested, but the man pushed him to the ground. "Hey! What do you think you're doing?"

The man continued to walk forward and Neah scrambled after him. Cyrus saw as his nephew ran to the fire and his eyes widened. "What the hell is he doing?" he said and chased after him, dropping the bucket of water he was about to throw on the fire.

"Uncle, please! He won't stop!" Neah pleaded as his uncle drew near. Cyrus finally saw the man and forcefully dragged him away.

"What are you doing? I need to get it!" the man yelled. "I need to get it!" Cyrus turned to Neah and frowned.

"What is he talking about?" he asked the boy.

Neah shrugged. "Something called 'Innocence.' He keeps on saying he needs to give it to someone, I think."

"They said they would pay me if I delivered it to them. That's what they said," the man said. "You don't know how much I need the money."

"Well, whatever it is, it's probably destroyed," Cyrus said. The man looked at Cyrus with fear in his eyes. "What's your name, sir."

"Archibald, not that it really matters since I'll be dead if that Innocence isn't found," the man stated. Cyrus sighed and Neah crossed his arms.

"There's no need to be so dramatic, Archibald," Cyrus said. "It's always possible that it will turn up after the fire is put out. Now stay here with Neah."

"H-hey! Again?" Neah said as his uncle went back to the fire. "What if he runs off again?"

"Make sure he doesn't," Cyrus replied and walked away. Neah glared at the back of Cyrus' head as he retreated.

"Don't worry boy. I won't run," Archibald said. "I'll tell you my story, if you'll listen. I'll be a dead man after this anyways." The man sat down on the ground and patted the ground next to him. Neah walked over and he sat and he listened.

It was two hours before the fire was completely extinguished and the sun was starting to go down. Archibald had filled those two hours telling Neah about himself. When the man was done, Neah had learned what he could about the Innocence Archibald had been after, and why. His family was poor, and a strange man who called himself the Millennium Earl appeared and offered him money if he could retrieve something he wanted dearly called 'Innocence.' So Archibald took the job and eventually he came upon the Innocence in the form of a book hidden in a nobleman's library. It took a while for him to befriend the noble enough so he was given permission to take the book freely, but once he did he left and started on his way back to his hometown with a carriage he admitted to stealing from the nobleman (after swearing Neah to secrecy). It was two days after he left the nobleman that the carriage caught fire, causing the horses to run away in the process, which brought his tale up to the present.

"Listen, boy. I need that book. If I get it to the Earl, I can send the money back to my family," Archibald said. "And if I don't, I couldn't bear to live anymore."

"You're acting like some worried woman," Neah said. "You never mentioned any consequence if you didn't get the Innocence, so you don't have to die." Archibald looked at the boy and smiled half-heartedly.

"That may be so, but I couldn't live with myself if I wasn't able to help my family," he said and buried his head in his hands. Cyrus, covered in sweat, wandered over to the boy and man. He looked briefly at Archibald before turning his attention to his nephew.

"Alright, kid. It's time we headed back," he said tiredly. The other men who had helped him were in a similar fashion as they walked off towards their homes. Neah stood and wiped dirt off of his pants. He looked at Archibald and then turned to his uncle.

"Is he going to stay with us?" he asked. He didn't really mind if the man stayed around for a bit; he seemed pretty interesting. His uncle rubbed his hands together and nodded his head. "And what about the Innocence? Are we gonna look for it?"

"Neah, it would be a miracle if anything in that fire didn't burn," Cyrus responded.

"The Innocence _is _a miracle," Archibald said as he stood up. "It couldn't have perished in the fire."

"What are you talking about? Of course it did. Can you see anything in those ashes that might resemble something, anything, that wasn't touched by that damn fire?" Cyrus argued and pointed to where the fire had once blazed. All that was left were ashes, as he had said. "There is no way in hell that someone is going to search through that pile for something called 'Innocence.'" Archibald looked at the pile in distraught.

"No, no there is no way it is gone!" Archibald yelled as he stumbled towards the ashes, falling to his knees in front of them. Cyrus put a hand on his shoulder as he stared at the grey mess. It looked like Cyrus was right; there was no way anything could be there that didn't perish in the flames, especially if it was a book.

Neah frowned. _But that book isn't normal, if what Archibald said was true, _he thought and walked over to the pile of ashes. _If he's right, the book didn't burn._ Against his uncle's wishes, he started to search the ashes, nearly burning his hands in the process. Cyrus pulled the boy away, scowling at him.

"Damn it, boy. I don't need you to get injured," he said and then turned his attention to Archibald. "Your story caused this. If you stay with us you are not allowed to spread your tales to my nephews. You would have to deal with my sister then."

Neah watched as Archibald stood up and trailed behind him and Cyrus as his uncle forced him to walk away from the scene of the fire. He looked down and inspected his hands. They had received very minimal damage, even though the ashes were still hot, still semi-fresh from the fire. They didn't even hurt that much.

Neah turned his attention back to Archibald and smiled. "Don't worry, Archibald. I'll find the Innocence for you," he said quietly, making sure his uncle wouldn't be able to hear him as he fell in beside him as they walked to the house. Archibald only frowned, deep in his own thoughts, but Neah didn't notice. He took the man's silence as him saying "thanks," that he was being just as cautious as he was not to let Cyrus know what he was planning. Oh, yes, he planned to go back to the place where the Innocence had supposedly burned in the fire. He promised himself he would search for it until he found it or he had solidified his uncle's idea that the Innocence had burned along with the rest of the carriage.


	2. Chapter 2

**"I feel so lonely~! Oh, so loooonelyyyyy~! My friends have left me~! So I am lonely~!"**

**Seriously, where are they?**

**I'm updating this during lunch, and for some reason none of my friends are here. I know they're at school because we all drive to school in a carpool, but for some reason they're just... gone. Hmmm... **

**Anyways, here is the next chapter!**

* * *

Adelaide was starting to grow worried. Her son and brother had been gone for hours, not that she could have hoped for any less, and ideas were beginning to plague her mind with the worst situations. She couldn't help thinking that maybe the fire had spread farther and it was getting out of control. Maybe her son was injured. Maybe her brother pushed her child into the fire and watched him burn! Adelaide cursed herself after thinking this. _What a ridiculous idea. _She thought. _Cyrus would never do that to my son. _Adelaide sighed deeply and looked at her son, drawing a picture. He didn't look like he was worried at all. Adelaide smiled as she watched her son and repeated his earlier words in her head.

_Neah is strong…_

Adelaide and Mana jumped when the door was slammed open to reveal Cyrus, Neah, and a man she did not recognize. She ran over to her son, kneeling down to his level and hugged him tightly.

"M-mother?" Neah asked in surprise as she squeezed the air out of him. Behind her Mana was laughing softly as he walked over and stood next to his mother.

Adelaide leaned back and let her hands grasp his. Neah flinched when she grabbed them. She looked down to inspect them and saw that they were red.

"Neah, what happened?" she asked as Neah pulled his hands away, refusing to meet her gaze. Adelaide looked up at Cyrus, who was scowling at the boy.

"Your son decided it was a good idea to search through the ashes, _while they were still hot, _to look for something that belonged to Mr. Archibald here," Cyrus said, pushing the unknown man forward. He looked guilty as he stared down at the boy.

"I am sorry, ma'am," he said. He flinched as Adelaide stood and turned a harsh gaze towards him. She stared at him for a moment before a smile replaced her frown. Archibald looked at her in surprise as she grabbed his hand.

"Please don't worry, Archibald. My son must have had good intentions to go through such lengths for you," she said and then looked the men over. "Now you boys get washed up. We are going to have a nice dinner with our guest here."

She placed her hand on both of her son's backs and pushed them towards the washroom. She saw as Neah snuck a look back as he and his brother walked away and she smiled. Her son smiled back.

Adelaide turned her attention to Cyrus and Archibald as her brother started to lead the man in the same direction as her sons. She reached out at the last minute and grabbed her brother's arm.

"I'm sure Archibald can find his way," she said and smiled at the man. He nodded quickly and wandered away from them. Cyrus stared warily at his retreating figure before turning to his smiling sister. He watched as her smile disappeared and her eyes lost their spark. She seemed to return to the persona she had when she had been excessively worrying about Mana.

"What exactly happened?" she asked him.

His hands were starting to hurt as he ran them under cold water. The sharp surprise of the lack of heat had caused a small throbbing throughout his palms. Neah flinched but did not pull his hands away. He looked at his brother who was smiling back at him. Neah couldn't help but grin at the thought that his brother was awake and standing with him.

"What was it like?" Mana asked, referring to his little adventure.

"It was really hot and I couldn't really breathe. Uncle wouldn't let me get too close, so I was stuck watching Archibald," Neah said, sticking out his tongue. "He told me an interesting story, though."

"What about?" Mana asked with a grin on his face.

Neah smiled. "He told me about how a man asked him to get something called "Innocence" so he could get some money to help his family. They're poor." Neah turned off the water faucet and dried off his hands. "He told me that it couldn't have possibly burned in the fire, so I wanted to look for it, but Uncle pulled my away."

"Is that how you burned your hands?" Mana asked. Neah smiled sheepishly and nodded.

"I want to look for it again tonight with your help," he said and Mana looked at him in surprise.

"Mother and Uncle would never let us!"

"They don't have to know," Neah said. "We could sneak out."

Mana still looked unsure, so Neah grabbed his arm and smiled brightly. "Imagine how grateful Archibald would be if we found the Innocence, Mana!"

Slowly a small smile formed on his brother's lips as he thought about it. Mana was always one to want to help everyone he came across, to make them smile. Neah felt a tinge of guilt at exploiting his brother's weakness to get what he wanted.

"Alright, let's do it," Mana said. Neah smiled again and nodded his head, the feeling of guilt slowly fading.

The two boys continued getting ready for dinner. Neah's dirty clothing was stripped and given to a maid to wash while another looked for bandages to wrap around his hands. Mana decided the best way to help was to stay out of the way. In only a few moments they were ready.

"What do you think 'Innocence' is?" Mana asked his brother as they walked towards the dining room. Neah was about to answer when Archibald walked up behind him. He had an eerie smile that sent shivers down his spine.

"What is Innocence?" Archibald repeated with a look of hatred in his eyes, venom in his voice. "It is a detestable power that should be destroyed." The man stalked off away from the boys without another word.

Neah was surprised at Archibald's reaction, and more than a little bit confused. At the scene of the fire, Archibald was begging that the Innocence be saved, but now he wants it to be destroyed? _This guy really is crazy, _Neah thought as he grabbed Mana's hand and followed Archibald. Still, it didn't keep him from wanting to look for the Innocence.

The hallway opened up to the dining room where the table was set like it usually was when the Campbell's had guests. The maids had pulled out the family's finest silverware and gold-lined plates, and instead of setting it for four people, an extra set was placed at the head of the table opposite of Cyrus. Archibald, Cyrus, and the children's mother were already sitting in their seats and Neah and Mana rushed to sit at the seats on their uncle's right side, across from their mother who sat on his left.

Neah watched Archibald as they waited for food, wondering why his attitude was so different from before. The man's eyes were also trained on him and they watched each other in silence. There seemed to be a strange tension in the air, which Adelaide took notice of. She smiled at her younger son.

"Neah, why don't you tell us about your day?" she asked.

"Why me?" Neah asked, breaking away from Archibald's gaze to look at his mother. He felt a kick from under the table and glanced at Mana, who smiled sheepishly. "_Mana,_" he whispered sharply in complaint.

"What?" Mana asked, feigning innocence.

Neah looked at the others; his mother was chuckling at the two, but when Neah looked at his uncle, he was met with a cold, hard stare. His smile faded and he looked down.

"Um, I ran into Bennet and his friends..." he trailed off. Adelaide and Mana looked at him in confusion, while the other two looked indifferent.

"Aren't they your friends, too?" His mother asked. Neah shook his head and scowled.

"I don't want to be their friend anymore," he stated as he remembered what had happened.

_Bennet and the others had been standing outside of Mr. Wiley's butcher shop, chatting up a storm while seemingly waiting for Neah, but as the boy approached them, they suddenly grew quite. Neah asked a kid named Jacob what was wrong, but he shrugged his shoulders and looked to Bennet for help. The rest of them looked to him as well. Bennet crossed his arms and looked at the ground._

_"You shouldn't keep thinkin' Mana's gonna wake up," he said. Neah looked up at the slightly taller boy in surprise. "It's not like he's goin' ta, anyways."_

_"What do you mean?" Neah demanded. Bennet looked at him with cold, hard eyes, and Neah took a step back._

_"He ain't never gonna be an adult," he said. "It's been a month since he collapsed, 'asn't it?"_

_"That doesn't mean anything!" Neah shouted, still trying to keep holding onto the hope that his brother would wake up soon. He felt tears start to form in his eyes and he looked down so the others wouldn't see them. He shoved his arm up to his eyes to wipe them away before letting it fall to his side._

_"Neah-"one of the smaller kids named Sammy said as he reached out to touch the boy's shoulder, but Neah shrugged his hand off and stepped away. _

_"Do you think he's never going to wake up?" he asked Jacob and Sammy in a dangerous tone. "Do you believe Bennet?" The boys looked at each other before staring down at the ground. _

_"It doesn't seem like he's gonna wake up," Jacob said quietly. Sammy nodded beside him, his eyes still trained on the ground. _

_Neah backed up a few steps before turning around completely and walking away from them. His hands were clenched into fists as he walked, his eyes trained on the ground. None of the other boys tried to stop him as he made his way back to his house._

Neah flinched inwardly at the memory. His "friends" had lost hope in his brother's awakening, unlike him and his mother. His eyes saddened as he looked at her. She was at Mana's bedside for almost the entire time he had been asleep, not resting for a moment so she could be there when her son awoke. Neah had stayed there by her side for the first couple of days, but it seemed as if he had slowly been giving up hope as they dragged on.

Adelaide seemed to take notice of her son's distress and smiled softly at him. Neah looked up at her and smiled back in reassurance.

"Why don't you go out with Mana tomorrow afternoon and find your friends? I'm sure they'd like to see Mana again," Cyrus said, leaning an arm on the table. Neah glared at the man.

"I just said I don't want to be friends with them anymore," he said in annoyance, thinking that his uncle hadn't been listening to him.

"Neah, don't speak to your uncle like that," Adelaide said with a frown. Neah looked down at his hands and muttered an apology. He felt a hand on his shoulder and he looked up. Mana smiled at him before turning to their uncle.

"It's fine with me if we don't go, uncle," he said. "I want to get caught up with everything that's been going on here first."

Their uncle sighed and looked on silently as they waited for food. In no time the table was filled with glorious deliciousness as their kitchen staff brought it out. Neah and Mana's eyes shined as they stared at the food. Adelaide beckoned for their guest, who had stayed strangely silent so far, to take his food first, to which he obliged.

"Thank you for inviting me," the man said and smiled at the Cambell family. When they all got their food the boys started eating straight away. Adelaide had a small conversation with her brother and their guest while they ate, consisting of many questions about Archibald, though they received their fair share of questions in return.

"Mr. Archibald?" Mana suddenly asked. "Why do you want to find the Innocence?"

Cyrus looked to Neah and frowned. "Did you tell him?" he asked. Neah looked away and narrowed his eyes at nothing in particular.

"Maybe," he replied.

"You said that it should be destroyed, right?" Mana continued. "Then why do you want to find it so bad?"

Archibald chuckled and intertwined his fingers with each other. Leaning forward, he smiled mischievously. "You see, I promised a man I would find Innocence so I could help my family," he explained. "I'm not particularly a big fan of the stuff, but I found that I could put that little problem aside." He rested his head in his hand. "Why are you looking for Innocence?"

Both Neah and Mana paused what they were doing in surprise. "You heard us?" Neah asked, slowly lowering his fork, his voice laced with guilt. He ignored the shocked glare he was receiving from his uncle and continued to stare at Archibald. The man laughed lightly.

"It was hard not to," he replied and looked at the children in amusement. Mana sunk lower into his seat, hiding from the wrath of his uncle while Neah sat up straighter as he turned his gaze to his uncle, unaffected.

"Well, we're going to," he said. Before Cyrus could insist that they most certainly would not, he was interrupted by a soft chuckling from the children's mother.

"It sounds like fun," she said as she sipped her tea. Neah looked at his mother in surprised as she smiled at him behind her cup. Mana sat up in his seat in excitement.

"You'll really let us, Mother?" he asked.

Adelaide chuckled. "Yes, but of course, you have to finish your vegetables," she said and then turned her gaze to her brother. Cyrus was currently staring stoically at her, possibly deep in thought. Suddenly, he turned his head to look at Archibald.

"Perhaps Archibald should accompany them," Cyrus said. "After all, they are looking for a piece of his 'property' that for some reason they believe to have survived the fire." Adelaide gave him a sharp look, but before she could say anything, Archibald spoke.

"I would like to inform you that Innocence cannot be destroyed so easily, especially not within a common fire," he said, waving his hand around. Cyrus eyed him as he continued to speak. "I've heard that there are… special beings that have the power to destroy Innocence with their bare hands."

"Is the Earl going to destroy it?" Neah asked. Archibald looked at him and chuckled.

"Maybe," he said and eyed the boy. Neah frowned in return and returned to his half-eaten dinner. He drowned out the new conversation that was brewing between the adults, leaving him to his own thoughts. There seemed to be a change in personality in Archibald; he seemed less like the crazy person he had been before and more like a dignified gentlemen. Neah glared at his food, pushing around some beansprouts with his fork. It puzzled him how a person could just change like that.

"Neah?" Mana whispered. Said boy looked up to see his brother's amused expression. Mana grinned. "Did the beansprouts do something to make you mad?" Neah took on a look of confusion and stared back down at the vegetable that littered his plate.

"Ah, no…" Neah said and then smiled. "I was just thinking." He stabbed a few of the beansprouts with his fork and stuffed them inside his mouth. He made a face. They tasted so bland. Neah looked up at his mother with a curious expression, his previous thoughts forgotten. "So, is Archibald going to come with us?"

Adelaide thought for a moment before shaking her head. "I would like to have a word or two with Mr. Archibald, if that's alright. Besides, I would be surprised if you boy's didn't know the area like the back of your hands." Cyrus stared at his sister, his initial shock fading into confusion. Adelaide caught his eye and smiled. "I'd like to talk to you as well."

"Right…" Cyrus mumbled. Neah thought he saw his uncle's eyes dart over to their guest, but it had been too quick an action for him to be sure. He picked some more beansprouts up with his fork and placed them in his mouth. As he chewed them, he watched his family (and their guest) with curiosity as they spoke about other matters. Both he and his brother remained quiet, their excitement growing as they time drew nearer for them to find Mr. Archibald's "Innocence."

As the skies of daylight bled in the colorful dawn that usually graced the evenings of most every day, the two boys waited by the door for their mother to see them off on their "little adventure," as Adelaide had decided to call it. It was a mother thing, Neah had decided when she had kindly refused his request for her to stop. She was a little too excited for his liking, but at the same time, a little too worried. By the end of dinner, she seemed to be second-guessing her decision on letting the boys go off on their own to look for something that likely didn't exist anymore after the fire, but it was growing too late for her to change her mind; Neah and Mana were already ready to go.

"Neah, make sure you and your brother come back here right away if he has any dizzy spells," Adelaide said as she handed the brothers' their coats. "I don't want him to tire himself out after he just woke up."

Mana made a face. "Mother, I'm fine," he insisted. "I don't feel tired or anything." Adelaide chuckled and bent down to mess with the front of her son's coat.

"That may be so, but I still want you to be careful," she explained and put a hand on Mana's cheek. "You'll do that for me, right?" Mana nodded.

The two boys exited the house, both waving and saying goodbye to their mother as they left, who in return waved back. They giggled as they started running towards the scene of the fire.

Neither child had noticed the glazed look that had passed over their mother's eyes.

* * *

**I have to say, I'm not the proudest of this chapter, but oh well. I hope that it is enough for you guys to enjoy reading! I came up with a certain idea about Archibald (that will be revealed in the next chapter) in the beginning-middle when making this chapter, so I'm sorry if he seems very different from the last chapter.**

**Thank you _reader_ and _author12306 _for reviewing and followers! I hope you guys are enjoying this story!**

**Please review or message me about your thoughts for this story. I really appreciate any feedback or thoughts you have for this story!**


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